The use of ink jet printing processes in the manufacture of multicolor images is known in the art. In such processes, ink droplets can be emitted from a nozzle and deposited on substrates to form an image. To obtain quality images, rapid absorption of the ink into the substrate is required, but at the same time the ink colorant must be retained at or near the surface of the substrate with lateral ink migration limited to the resolution of the printer.
To achieve high quality images in ink jet printing, the substrate can be coated with a formulation to meet certain requirements. Although paper stock is extensively used as a substrate for ink jet printing, many other materials can be used including plastic films and sheets, fabrics, metals, wood, glass, and the like. When transparencies are to be produced, typically a coated transparent plastic film or sheet is used as the substrate. Since aqueous based inks are a common type of ink used in ink jet printing processes, substrate coating formulations typically are hydrophilic and contain appropriate absorptive materials. Such coated substrates are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,775,594 and 5,198,306. The '594 patent describes an ink jet transparency with wetting properties resulting in even surface distribution of ink on the transparency. The transparency comprises a transparent resinous support and a clear coating thereon containing a water soluble resin, a water insoluble resin, a fluorosurfactant, and non-volatile organic acid including glycolic, methoxy acetic, dibasic carboxylic, or tribasic carboxylic acid. The '306 patent describes a recording transparency and its method of preparation from a water solution. The transparency comprises a transparent substrate and a coating of a synthetic transparent cellulosic polymer and a surfactant composition comprising nonionic detergent, anionic detergent and complexing agent.
Conventional ink jet printing processes, inks and substrates are capable of producing high quality four color images on paper substrates in sizes ranging from office copy up to sizes useful for posters, displays and billboards. However, application of ink jet printing has been limited largely to typical office uses such as copy and the like where environmental and abrasion damage to the finished ink image is unlikely to occur. When used as posters, displays, billboards and when used with glass substrates, water sensitive ink jet images and underlying substrates must be protected from rain, sunlight (UV), and other environmental contaminants and should likewise be protected from abrasion and graffiti to provide adequate useful life to the image displayed. There also continues to be an industry need for a process to provide protected, durable, distortion-free, scratch-resistant, UV and humidity resistant, full-color ink jet images for use on large format posters, billboards, planar surfaces, architectural surfaces, appliances, non-planar surfaces, and the like.